Five years ago today, Naughty Dog released PlayStation 3’s swan song with the critically acclaimed survival game, The Last of Us. The game was a smash hit and is widely regarded as one of the best games ever made but due to it only being available on PlayStation, it has had a somewhat limited audience.
However, that hasn’t stopped it from outselling a vast majority of multi-platform games. According to Naughty Dog, as of April 2018, The Last of Us has sold over 17 million copies across the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, making it one of the most successful exclusives out there. Of course, copies included with PlayStation 3 and 4 system bundles are included in this data and the PS4 came packed in with a copy of The Last of Us for many months but it’s still incredibly impressive nonetheless.
Naughty Dog revealed a sequel to the post-apocalyptic tearjerker in 2016 which is set four years after the first game with a more mature and brutal Ellie. The sequel’s plot details are scarce at the moment but the team has teased multiple playable protagonists, a darker story where father-figure Joel may kick the bucket, and much more.
Sony gave us our first look at gameplay on Monday night which showed off the relentless human enemies, Ellie’s survival skills, and embracing Ellie’s sexuality after seeing it explored in the DLC Left Behind. Game director Neil Druckmann has addressed concerns of the game being hyper-realistic and too violent by saying that’s the idea, it’s not supposed to be fun, it’s meant to be engaging and make you uncomfortable. It’s the world that these characters must survive in but it’s not a fun one.
The highly anticipated PS4 exclusive has no release date as of right now but Naughty Dog promises they’ll share it once they are really close to release as to not disappoint anyone if they have to delay it.
The Last of Us Remastered is available now on PlayStation 4 and fans speculate that The Last of Us Part II will launch sometime in late 2019.
